Power Consumption

We measure CPU power consumption since one of our first tasks is to truly verify system stability. I isolate the power coming through the 8-pin ATX connector using an in-line meter that provides voltage and current readings, and total wattage passed through. While this may not prove to isolate the CPU power draw in all instances, it does serve as a good indicator of board efficiency and effective VRM design. Total system power consumption is no longer reported as this figure can change depending on what VGA is installed. The sole board-only power measurements possible without physically modifying a motherboard are those taken via the 8-pin CPU connector, making it the only figure of value worth reporting. I use wPrime with eight threads selected in its options since it provides a consistently high workload throughout the full length of the test and runs long enough for the VRM and CPU to produce a fair bit of heat. Most average workloads will draw far less than that, although distributed computing applications are quite similar. This is not supposed to test stability since I use several other applications to do so, but merely serves to provide repeatable power draw numbers anyone can replicate. The meter used is an off-the-shelf Zalman unit that has been on the market for some time. In my test environment, it provides results similar to a FLUKE 337 clamp meter.


Seeing 103W at load with the i7-6950X was a bit surprising, but not completely unexpected since I use wPrime to produce the load. You'd be able to push a bit more with AVX or Prime95 testing, but those are fairly unrealistic loads I couldn't be bothered with. That said, power consumption is good here, but with this being the first board I've tested Broadwell-E with and having to return this chip to Gigabyte when I'm done with it, the numbers in this particular review might prove a bit meaningless until after I get another chip to test with. What is useful, though, is the 15W idle power draw figure, which was elevated a bit since the board had the CPU running at "full Turbo" clocks while idle in the OS. Playing with the board's power settings might fix that; an updated BIOS Gigabyte will release in the future may do so as well. I'm not a fan of seeing such elevated clocks at idle, but who is really going to complain about a 8-10 W idle power draw increase?

Fan Control

*Fan speed is controlled by temperature, with set on and off points controlled via the PWM function.


There are five 4-pin fan headers on the Gigabyte X99-Ultra Gaming. Two of those headers, however, are different. They are fully ready to support proper PWM signals, and by that function, can push water pumps. One of them is the CPU fan header at the top-right and the other is the system fan header at the bottom-right of the board. That means should you decide to go all out on a build with this board and do two full watercooling loops, you could plug the pumps into the Gigabyte X99-Ultra Gaming and manage their functions using the board's provided controls.


In BIOS, those controls are pretty good, allowing you to turn the fans off completely at a set temperature if you like; something not all boards offer. The fan curve is fully adjustable, but I did find that if your set points are close together, moving one point can affect how the one next to it is set.


You can enable the full PWM function on those two special fan headers as well as options for PCH temperature alarms or fan-fail warnings from within the BIOS. The fan-fail warning option is a great one for the headers that might have pumps plugged into them, that's for sure.


If you want to control the fans from within your OS, you'll find the System Information Viewer app to be the one to use, and the first time you turn on the software, it'll automatically calibrate itself to your installed fans.